Why are crows always depicted with yellow beaks and feet
I have an aunt who likes to collect knickknacks. Believe it or not her favorite things to collect are figurines of crows. What bugs me is that most of the crows in her collection have yellow beaks and feet when, of course, crows have black beaks and feet. Why are crows so often depicted with yellow beaks and feet? I blame that old cartoon "Heckle and Jeckle"in which, for some reason, those two crows had yellow beaks and feet. Why? I'm glad to hear about your aunt's knickknack collection. After all, what kind of aunt would she be if she didn't collect knickknacks? Isn't that what distinguishes aunts from regular people? Also, I totally agree with you on the crow thing. I'm constantly fighting with cartoon companies that still have these lame ideas of what birds are supposed to look like. They make storks with messenger caps on their heads or penguins wearing bow ties. What is that about? And yes, they make tons of yellow-beaked-and-footed crows, with some in straw hats just to put me over the edge. How many of you reading this right now have to pause for a second and think "hmm, now that I think about it, crows really don't have yellow beaks and feet?" That's right, they have solid black beaks and feet. I'm not even going to ask how many people had to wonder if they thought crows usually wore straw hats. There could be several reasons why this yellow-beaked-and-footed crow thing has been sweeping the world. The answer could be to grab the audience's attention. Crows are black, completely black. I think cartoon writers feel that in order to catch the eye of the world's people, they need to add some color. They feel that without a colored beak and feet the crows look more like a dusty piece of fudge. I say so what? Who wouldn't want fudge, even dusty fudge? There may be some marketing involved in this crow scam, Molly, but I think your suggestion about cartoons is more accurate. However, we can't blame Heckle and Jeckle for this one. Heckle and Jeckle aren't actually crows and Terry never claimed they were. They are magpies, Yellow-billed Magpies to be exact, which are a real species. The real villain here could be everybody's pal Walt Disney. I have no research to back this up, but I think it was those singing crows in the movie "Dumbo" that started this whole yellow-beaked-and-footed crow fad. For some reason, perhaps only known to now dead Walt, those Dumbo crows had yellow beaks and feet, plus the dreaded straw hats and it's been all down hill from there. Hollywood loves to show wildlife featuring a particular stereotype. They've decided that owls should be marketed as wise, so they draw cartoon owls wearing glasses or graduation caps. What? Owls with glasses? First of all, glasses don't make you wiser, at least they haven't worked for me. Secondly, it would be hard to name a creature that has better vision than an owl. Yet those boneheads think they need to cartoonize owls wearing glasses. I'd like to have been around for that meeting. Here's another one that bugs me. The next time you are watching a movie, a real movie not a cartoon, listen to the background sounds. I've seen films about people lost in the jungle with scary background sounds that couldn't possibly come from that environment. Scary jungle sounds might be crocodiles or snakes or tigers, even a gorilla would be good. But noooo, what you will often hear are the calls of kookaburras. Kookaburras? That's right kookaburras. Why would Hollywood think that playing kookaburras would actually scare people? Kookaburras are small brown birds, much like a sparrow. Who's afraid of a sparrow? Here is the stupidest one. Somewhere, somehow, someone decided that non-owl birds of prey shouldn't sound like they actually do, some of which can be compared to songbirds. It was decided that raptors should sound scary. So they hired a Red-tailed Hawk to do a voice-over. Since then 90% of the raptors shown on the screen are lip-syncing. Like many recent acts, all the raptor has to do is move its beak and the hawk, with its more menacing voice, does the rest. They both get paid to keep it quiet and the public is none the wiser. Good luck with your search to find crow items for your aunt Molly. I'm glad you are fighting the stereotype. Believe me I know it's tough. If you get stuck finding something good, let me know. I have some crow's feet that I'd like to get rid of.